seeking medical advice concerning her baby. Here is an intolerable
situation that must be improved by establishing in popular usage the
dignified scientific words for the chief sexual organs. We must begin
to do so by teaching the words frankly to boys of adolescent years, and
by persuading parents to teach their children correctly.

[Sidenote: Sex-physiology.]

Having learned the structure and names of their sexual organs, boys may
easily understand the function of each part if explained in simple
language. Ten or twenty minutes ought to be enough time for stating the
important facts. One printed page could state them clearly. Here is the
time for personal hygienic advice, especially such topics as: rules for
self-control; harmful habits (see discussion of masturbation in Sec. 26);
sexual activity not necessary for health; occasional nocturnal
emissions not pathological.[16]

[Sidenote: Female organs.]

I believe it is well for boys of adolescent years to know a few leading
facts regarding female structure and function, but such knowledge is
best learned from oral description by a well-balanced teacher. Diagrams
and (in some schools) a demonstrated dissection of a cat or other
animal will be helpful. The meaning of the ovaries as sources of the
egg-cells and of the uterus as the place for development of the
fertilized egg-cell should be explained in a serious way that will help
boys get some fundamental ideas as to what motherhood means Boys,
moreover, should be informed concerning the existence of the periodic
disturbance in the other sex, for unless they know they are sure at
times to misunderstand their sisters and other girls. Professor W.S.
Hall has stated the essential information in "Chums" (for boys twelve
to sixteen), but his comparison of periodicity in the two sexes is not
strictly accurate, for there are not in men any sexual cycles that are
strictly comparable with the menstrual cycles of women.

[Sidenote: No pictures.]

It is probably best, as urged by several writers, that the life-like
illustrations, some of them photographic, in books of human anatomy be
kept away from boys of early adolescent age. Diagrams can be made to
explain all that is necessary, and without the danger of stimulation
that might come from the illustrated medical books.

[Sidenote: Embryology.]

The embryological facts of human biology are very impressive to boys
and young men who know little of science. I believe that